The Conflict of Influence and Comparisons · 7:32am Jun 2nd, 2023
Hello, dear readers!
First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for the huge support the fic Piano Lessons has got. With it being a last day entry for the May Pairings Contest 2023, I expected it to be burried under the wave of new contest entries, but it climbed to first spot in featured and I am honestly surprised by that. Maybe it's also luck, with it being over 8k words and thus the algorithm giving it "momentum bonus for longer stories" (according to someone who said it to me somewhere, longer fics get these), and the story having been published just before the "end wave" of last minute entry, but it was nonetheless your support who put my story up there. So thanks to anyone who read, liked, fav'ed and commented on it! 
And of course I have to also publicly thank PseudoBob Delightus and Punished Bean for their help in making the fic. Bean decided to pepp up the cover, giving so many inputs of his own that the cover turned out to be so greatly appealing, and with PseudoBob, there is not enough thanks to give. So many things corrected, weird behaviour pointed out, sentences improved in their flow, gave ideas for additional ending scenes; in short, without that proofreading, the story would be far from the quality it was polished into.
Well, those who may have stumbled upon my Personal Top bookshelf, they would notice the fic Lunchtime Therapy by crowscrowcrow in there. I love that fic; it's funny, but at the same time a nice drama with such a great characterisation and it was, truth be told, a fic that shaped how I would headcanon Trixie. I highly order recommend anyone to read it 
Now, a bit of funny personal experience: Due to this fic being one of the fics I personally like the most, I had a disturbed perceivance of if Octavia and Trixie were a rare pairing fit for the contest. My fimfic account is only a bit more than one year old and I generally don't read ship stories, if not at all, so I couldn't tell how common other pairings were in comparison.
But let's get to a sort of... interesting dilemma. There is absolutely no denial in the influence this fic had on mine. One of the things that bothered me during the writing was if it was too similar. After all, two same characters, both lonely, get along with each other at the end...
Of course there are differences, and logically the differences are big enough and the main theme in both stories is different too, but writing this fic, I couldn't feel other than feel like "it's the same". Lunchtime Therapy is so great, and here I am trying to accomplish something similar—a weird feeling 
The reason I sticked with Octavia for Trixie was because of the idea of Trixie playing the piano and someone seeing that and throwing themself out of personal interest into it, accidentally refreshing a mother-daughter issue through that. I told in my one year anniversary how I had in mind to write several Trixie fics with the theme of Trixie and her love for doing magic, so a conflict all about that was enforced. And the second character being chosen was at the end was, despite looking for a different character, Octavia Melody—she just fitted the best for it
Yeah... I'm not sure if I make sense or am able to express myself clearly, but these were indeed some of the personal worries I had. Humans do make comparisons all the time, and LT is such a great fic that I now try to mimic—it feels like I'm not honouring it. Luckily once the first drafts are made, the differences were clear for me and I was more comfortable. Such a weird experience... 
Well, if someone is still reading, congrats for sticking with my ramblings 
I'm not even sure on how to end this blog, ngl. I guess one shouldn't fear to try something despite fearing that it was done before. Granted, one shouldn't straight up copy a story, but there shouldn't be a fear of starting something that has been done already. I mean, for example, there are several, if not many Scootaloo being adopted by Rainbow Dash fics, but that doesn't mean you are not allowed to write one too. Stick to something you want to write, even if you know it was done better already. At the end, you will still do something differently, have a certain niche, feeling or perspective that is unique and others will appreciate.
Good luck in the judging! It's been a hoot seeing all the unique pairings people have come up with~